Vietnamese PM Meets With Buddhist Leader

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Vietnam's prime minister spoke with the leader of a banned Buddhist church about religious freedoms, an international Buddhist support group said Thursday, calling the meeting "a significant event."

Thich Huyen Quang, patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, has been under house arrest in a remote pagoda in central Vietnam since 1982.

Quang was sent to Hanoi last month to have a growth removed near his eye and requested a meeting with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, which took place Wednesday, according to the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau.

"The fact that a prime minister holds talks with a prisoner of conscience who has spent 21 years in detention and is still under effective house arrest is a significant event," Vo Van Ai, the bureau's director, said in a statement.

Ai quoted Quang as saying the 45-minute meeting was open and friendly, but no decisions were made regarding the status of the church, which was banned in 1981.

The patriarch was quoted as saying that the prime minister made no promises to release him or Thich Quang Do, the church's second-in-command, who is currently under house arrest.

As for re-establishing the church's status, Khai was quoted as saying: "We already have the Vietnam Buddhist Church. That's quite enough."

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The bureau's statement quoted Quang as saying the meeting was "a promising step" and that he would continue to press the government.

The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam is one of a number of independent religious groups banned by the communist government as possible threats to its authority. It allows only seven recognized religious organizations.